The ISU College of Business and Networks Financial Institute presented a Financial Services Seminar featuring the research of Dr. Tom Saving, Director of the Private Enterprise Research Center at Texas A&M University. A University Distinguished Professor of Economics at Texas A&M, he also holds the Jeff Montgomery Professorship in Economics. The seminar was held in ISU's College of Business 11th floor and featured a reception before the presentation.
About the Presentation
In the very near future Medicare and Social Security will begin to place an accelerating fiscal burden on the federal government. In less than 15 years, more than 25 percent of federal income tax revenues will be required to meet the promises made by these two programs. By 2030, when current 20-year olds are nearing their years of peak earnings, more than 50 percent of federal income tax revenues will be going to provide the elderly with benefits. So unless these programs are cut, and remember that the elderly do vote, the current youth can expect levels of taxation that greatly exceed those of their parents.
By the time current 20-year olds are 35 years old, their tax rates will have to rise by 13 percent, at 45, 27 percent, at 55, 38 percent. When they reach the full retirement age of 67 year old, their tax rates will have to be 47 percent higher than today’s rates. Is there a solution that is both politically viable and can rescue you from the coming tax tsunami? That is the question to be discussed and perhaps even answered. (Click here to download full presentation)
About Dr. Thomas R. Saving
Dr. Thomas R. Saving is the Director of the Private Enterprise Research Center at Texas A&M University. A University Distinguished Professor of Economics at Texas A&M, he also holds the Jeff Montgomery Professorship in Economics. Dr. Saving received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and served on the faculty at the University of Washington at Seattle and Michigan State University before moving to Texas A&M University in 1968. Dr. Saving’s research has covered the areas of antitrust economics, monetary economics, and health economics. He has served as a referee or as a member of the editorial board of the major United States economics journals, and he is currently co-editor of Economic Inquiry. His current research emphasis is on the benefit of markets in solving the pressing issues in health care and Social Security. He is the co-editor of Medicare Reform: Issues and Answers, University of Chicago Press, 1999, and the co-author of The Economics of Medicare Reform, W.E. Upjohn Institute, 2000. In addition, he has many articles in professional journals and two influential books on monetary theory. Dr. Saving has been elected to the post of President of the Western Economics Association, the Southern Economics Association and the Association of Private Enterprise Education. In 2000, President Clinton appointed Dr. Saving as a Public Trustee of the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds. On May 2, 2001, President Bush named Dr. Saving to the bipartisan President’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security.